Gary Walts/The Post-StandardAndy Breuer, a volunteer with Adapt CNY, helps in 2006 to clean up the Wilson Building.

Tom Cambier moved to Syracuse in 2005. As part of his job with the Hancock & Estabrook law firm, he often walked past the corner of South Salina and West Fayette streets. In the heart of downtown, Cambier was dismayed by the empty storefronts and boarded-up windows.

Then a friend told Cambier of a grassroots effort to clean out the Wilson Building, near the corner. The goal was almost painfully idealistic: Some true believers from a group called 40 Below maintained that hard work and raw faith might trigger a downtown revival, starting with that landmark.

Cambier signed on. "If you live and work in a city," he said, "you owe something back." He was among several dozen volunteers who hauled away broken toilet seats and worse from the Wilson Building. Dreams for restoring the place rose and fell. Whole years went by when it seemed beyond hope.

For Cambier and his companions, Thursday was the joyous payback.

State and local officials gathered at the Lincoln Center to announce the $25 million rehabilitation of the Wilson Building and three other historic structures at the corner. The buildings will become retail and residential space. Elaborate courtyards will offer a new connection between South Salina Street and Armory Square, a goal of downtown planners for the last 20 years.

"It just has so much potential," Cambier said. "You just look at Armory Square that's done so well only a block away, (where it's) so vibrant and alive at night and people want to be there, and you think if we can just build off that momentum ..."

Rob Simpson, president of the Metropolitan Development Association, presided over the event. He was one of the founders of 40 Below, an organization built upon the notion that the region's young professionals ought to play a direct role in any turnaround.

About five years ago, the group invited other Central New Yorkers to a downtown "summit." Visitors were asked to jot down suggestions for change on post-it notes, and then to stick those notes on boards throughout the hall.

Someone wrote: "Put your money where your mouth is. Fix downtown."

The core members took that message to heart, said Merike Treier, who coordinated many of the cleanups. The group decided to hunt for a forlorn building in a key location, a building whose restoration might serve as a civic model. The Wilson Building was perfect. It symbolized the long-neglected condition of the 300 block of South Salina Street, once the commercial heart of the region.

As the volunteers hunted for a developer to restore the place, they often gathered to drag away stacks of ancient trash. "I couldn't believe the amount of stuff in there," said Mike Frame, who would show up at the cleanups with his wife Kristy. "There was garbage and bottles and piles of paper, and old food that had been in there for at least a couple of years."

Dozens of supporters helped out, weekend after weekend. "It was the kind of energy we wanted to tap into," said Andy Breuer, a principal in Adapt CNY, a not-for-profit corporation that grew out of 40 Below. The early enthusiasm was followed by years of frustration: The economy tanked and little changed, although Breuer said officials at City Hall remained patient with the group.

Finally, over the last few months, the plan came together on a level beyond the best hopes of those early volunteers.

David Nutting, whose VIP Structures will handle construction, said he wants the work to begin by spring. Before that can happen, one task must be finished. Over the decades, countless tenants moved in and out of the Witherill and Chamberlin buildings, which are part of the project. Cambier and his friends know what they have to do.